By Mark Kleis

Monday, Aug 1st, 2011 @ 5:17 pm

It was four years ago that Toyota first revealed the A-BAT Concept, or Advanced Breakthrough Aero Truck, a unibody compact pickup that was powered by a Prius-like hybrid powerplant.

At the time the truck was labeled as nothing more than a design study, but as Leftlane reported earlier this year, the pickup has been on and off the table for possible production several times since - with the latest word from Pickuptrucks is that the concept may be coming to market after all in 2014 wearing Scion badging.

Before you start saving your pennies for a Prius-powered pickup, though, do keep in mind nothing is confirmed at this point, although things do seem to heading more towards production than ever before. There is one other major caveat as well - as of now it is believed the truck would at least initially find its motivation fro a traditional gas-only engine, with a hybrid variant only maybe coming later.

Although there are definite weight savings to be had with the utilization of a unibody pickup, market trends show the layout is losing favor with the public as the Honda Ridgeline sales continue to plummet - making a Toyota/Sion unibody pickup a risky venture that may or may not find itself positioned perfectly depending where fuel costs go in the coming years.

Should Scion bring the truck to market, expect the xT moniker to be plastered on the side of it - along with segment-leading fuel economy.